So what is Norbum? We still don't know: Yesterday Allen Stern
posted screenshots
he'd pulled from Norbum.org., which depicted a photo gallery of
homeless people, but that's gone now. We suspect those photos
were an ill-considered joke that Jakob or someone else posted,
then thought better of. We've emailed Jakob for
clarification.

We'd like to say we were able to figure this out using
"investigative journalism" but the truth is that David just
called us from vacation in Puerto
Rico. He is understandably upset that his name has been
linked to a site that may or may not be poking fun at the
homeless. So, for the record, here's David on the topic: "I'm not
involved with Norbum, I don't know what it is, and I would never
make fun of homeless people."

David is working with Jakob, by the way, but that's not
news:
Jakob is an angel investor in Tumblr, has worked out of
Tumblr's offices a bit since leaving Vimeo, and David tells us
Jakob is doing some work on Tumblr. The two haven't talked for
more than a week, David says.

The rest of the story is still murky, but in retrospect it seems
this is what happened: Over the weekend, Jakob posted
about...something on his
blog, and Allen and contributor James Thomas took the bait. They
concluded that Jakob and David were working on...something.
And we amplified that conclusion by
reposting it. David, bemused, egged all of us on with a
post that
said they were "on to something"... but that was a
joke.

Tumblr's David Karp: "Norbum" Isn't Me

We can finally shed more light on "Norbum", the supposed startup supposedly started by ex-Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick and Tumblr founder David Karp: David tell us he has nothing to do with Norbum, and doesn't know what it is or isn't.